This watchdog blog, by journalist Norman Oder, offers analysis, commentary, and reportage about the $4.9B project to build the Barclays Center arena and 15-16 towers at a crucial site in Brooklyn. Dubbed Atlantic Yards by developer Forest City Ratner in 2003, it was rebranded Pacific Park Brooklyn in 2014 after the Chinese government-owned Greenland Group bought a 70% stake going forward. As of 2018, after the arena and four towers were built, Greenland owns 95% of future construction.

That would be the first retail tenant at 550 Vanderbilt, the only condo building constructed in Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park, and built by Greenland Forest City Partners.

Note that "540 Vanderbilt" is atabout the center of the tower. Van Leeuwen location not clear

It also indicates both tenant and landlord believes there's enough ice cream demand to compete with the original location of rival Ample Hills Ice Cream, barely two blocks away.

(Van Leeuwen is known for pure flavors, while Ample Hills has funkier, more creative concoctions--minimalism vs. maximalism, as the Village Voice suggested. Both are expensive but very good.)

Also, there's a Thai hand-rolled ice cream place, Treat Yourself, between them, though it's less of a direct competitor.

It's unclear, of course, whether the asking rent was the contracted rent. Note that the asking rent for two Van Leeuwen spaces in Manhattan cited by the Commercial Observer were $384/square foot in Nolita and $150/square foot on the Upper East Side.